


Ask Me

by orphan_account



Series: Pizza Boxes and Unspoken Promises [4]
Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Alternate Universe - High School, Fluff and Angst, Friendship, Implied/Referenced Child Abuse, M/M, Misgendering, Mutual Pining, Trans Keith (Voltron), back at it again with pizza boxes, oh boy, please read this i spent so much tinme, same universe different timeline kind of thing
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-11-10
Updated: 2016-11-10
Packaged: 2018-08-30 06:42:48
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 8,992
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8522575
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/orphan_account/pseuds/orphan_account
Summary: Pidge turns towards him fully. “Lance gets really protective over the people he cares about. And you’re a person he definitely cares about.”His stomach does that little flippy thing again. He knows that Lance cares about him, but hearing it from someone else is nice. Pidge looks entirely too gleeful.“Are you blushing?”





	

Keith transfers into their school late late late in his sophomore year. He doesn’t know anyone and there’s a month left. It drags. He tries not to draw attention to himself, pass his classes without notice. He doesn’t bother telling these teachers his preferred name, his pronouns. It’s too big of a hassle for three weeks of school.

There’s this thirteen year old in his English class who always sits next to two other people, he thinks their name is Pidge, which is a weird name, but he’s not judging. He gets shoved into their reading group at the last minute, finishing up Ethan Frome, which he’d already read earlier in the year.

Pidge introduces themself with an outstretched hand, announcing their pronouns as they/them, and he feels a sense of relief flood his veins. The other two state their names as Hunk and Lance, and he recognizes Lance’s voices from the morning announcements.

“What was your name again?” Hunk asks. “The teacher kinda skimped on your introduction.”

“Um,” he says eloquently. He’s not sure what to tell these people, because they’re clearly accepting of gender expression if Pidge is anything to go by, but the entire rest of the class knows him as-

Pidge looks at him for a second, and then their eyes light up. They smile at him and he swallows.

“Keith,” he says, and Lance narrows his eyes for a second before it sinks in, and he shrugs, picking up his book.

“Well Keith, welcome to the reading group for the worst book in history.”

“The blueberries don’t mean shit,” he says, and it’s like he flipped a switch.

“Exactly! They’re just blueberries. This book has zero symbolism. None!”

“Who cheats on their wife with their wife’s much younger cousin? Who just does that?”

They hash out ideas for a project, delegate jobs, and then get sidetracked by telling Keith everything he needs to know about their school. He considers taking notes before realizing how stupid that sounds. He’ll figure it out eventually.

He walks home, because even though he’s sixteen, he has no car, and this new set of parents seems keen on keeping it like that. He wouldn’t expect them to let him drive their car anyway.

Lance catches him walking home one day after school, crossing paths as they’re both walking outside. It’s raining out and Keith pulls the hood of his jacket up to cover his head.

“Hey!” Lance says, jogging up to meet him. He turns around, not really expecting anyone to actively try to talk to him. There’s about a week left of school, and while he likes his English group, he’s not really sure if they like him.

“Where are you going?” Lance asks him, like school didn’t just get out and everyone isn’t going back to their houses.

“Home,” he says dryly.

“No, I mean like, is a parent picking you up? Did you drive?”

“I’m walking home,” he says. “It’s not that far and it’s not raining too hard.”

As if to spite him, it starts pouring. He curses under his breath, pulling the hood tighter around his face. Lance pulls out an umbrella and holds it over both of them.

“Do you want a ride home?”

Keith stares at him, trying to see if he’s being serious or not. No one just offers that to almost strangers without wanting something. He crosses his arms.

“Why?”

“Why what? It’s pouring and you’re trying to walk home. Would you rather get completely soaked or not?”

“I just… what do you want?”

Lance seems hurt. “What do I… What do I want? I’m just trying to be nice dude. If you didn’t want a ride all you had to say was no.”

He looks ready to turn and leave. Keith raises his hands, fishes around for words.”

“Wait, fuck, sorry. I didn’t mean to, I just—,” he stops himself. “If you’re still offering, I’d love a ride home.”

He seems to brighten up, smiling. “Well duh, I’m not just gonna let you walk home in this.”

He doesn’t realize until he gets in the car that this means getting home faster. He’ll have to be there for more time, see them for more time, have his deadname shoved in his face for more time. He slumps in his seat, staring out the window.

“You alright?”

“What? Yeah I’m fine I just don’t—,” he stops himself. Lance doesn’t need to know about his home life. He’s his maybe friend in English and that’s it.

Lance seems to make a decision. “Do you want to get pizza?”

“I don’t have any money on me right now.”

“That’s okay, I’ve got it.”

“I don’t want to—”

“Seriously Keith, it’s fine. Do you want to get pizza?”

He lets himself say yes, texts his foster mom that he’s staying after school to work on an English project. They get shitty five dollar pizza and sit in his car by a park. Lance gives him his number, practically forces him to put it in his phone. When enough time has passed that he absolutely has to go home, he asks Lance to drop him off a few blocks from his house.

“Why?” he asks, confused.

“They’re going to expect me walking, and if you drop me off, they’ll know something’s different and I don’t want them to ask.”

He agrees, still confused, and says goodbye down the street.

Lance asks if he wants a ride home every day until the end of school, and for the rest of the week, he has to say no, he can’t get away with ‘staying after’ every day on the last week. He even invites him to get food with him Hunk and Pidge on the last day of school

He asks his foster mom the morning of.

“What friends? Why haven’t I heard of them before?”

“Well, they were my group for English class, and they want to get some pizza after school to celebrate becoming juniors.”

She thinks for a second before sighing. “As long as you’re home before six thirty and I get a picture of who you’re hanging out with.”

He agrees, and when he tells them that yes, he can, he’s not really prepared for how excited they all get. He’s not used to making attachments, keeping to himself so that if he has to move again, he’ll have no one to miss.

He sends a picture to his foster mom, and lets himself enjoy this. He’s not quite comfortable with them yet, still wondering how a thirteen year old is in their class. They tell him that Pidge skipped like three grades in elementary school and now they’re here.

He doesn’t talk that much, but the others make up for him, bombarding him with speech and jokes and he’s never really felt this before. It’s weird and he likes it.

When they finally drop him off at home, he has Hunk and Pidge’s number as well, and has been included in their groupchat. He wonders what he did to deserve these people.

\---

During the summer, Keith works a lot. It’s better than home, but not by much. He’s still misgendered, unable to ask for a different nametag because his foster family shops there, and if they found out, he’d be dead.

When he’s not working, Lance practically drags him everywhere. It’s nice, being surrounded by people constantly, but sometimes he wishes he could just be alone. Even at home he’s not alone. He has a door in his room, but it’s almost constantly being opened without his permission. He doesn’t ask for it to be shut anymore, knows they don’t trust him, even if he hasn’t done anything wrong.

He sleeps at Lance’s house a lot, his parents accepting him into their household like another child. His siblings love him, and he’s relieved.

Lance’s mom cuts his hair shorter for him, enough that he feels comfortable with it, and he tries not to think of what his own household will think.

He covers up the bruises from that with cheap makeup that doesn’t really cover it up all that well. He does his best.

Lance flips when he sees it. “Who’d you get in a fight with?” he says as he wipes away at the makeup. Keith pulls his face back.

“No one. I tripped and hit my face on a table. It’s nothing.”

“Then why are you trying to cover it up?”

“Because I knew you’d flip out.”

“I’m not flipping—!“

“Lance. Drop it.”

He does, for a little bit. He doesn’t bring it back up for another week, letting it sit on his mind.

“Your parents don’t know, do they?”

“Know what?”

“About you going by Keith.”

“Well, I mean, if they did, I’d probably get moved again, and I kind of like it here.”

“Moved?”

“Yeah. I’m a foster kid. You knew that, right?”

“Um, no? I definitely did not know that.”

Oh, Keith thinks. That explains things a little.

“Oh. Well, um, yeah. That’s… yeah.”

“Do you think it would be better somewhere else?”

“What do you mean?”

Lance shifts a little, rearranging himself on his bed. “Well, do you think a different family would be better?”

“They’re really not that bad, compared to the others.”

“They hit you.”

“Well, I did get my hair cut without their permission.”

Lance looks baffled. “ _That’s_ why they hit you? Because of a haircut?”

“They don’t really like me being my own person. It’s fine.”

“But it’s not fine. Parents aren’t supposed to—“

“They’re not my parents.”

“For all intents and purposes, right now they are. Parents aren’t supposed to hit their kids.”

Keith doesn’t say anything, settling back against the wall.

He stays at Lance’s that night.

\---

When school starts back up, he actually tells his teachers what name he goes by, just not to use it with his family. For the most part, he gets positive reactions. There’s a couple of teachers that are just plain rude, but by the schoolboard, they have to agree.

Lance drives him to school most days, picking up coffee or breakfast or something before they get there.

Once teacher he actually likes, the history teacher who told all his students just to call him Shiro, actively talks to him. He’ll say hello to him in the hallway, tell him exactly what he needs to change on papers. He offers him tea in the afternoons when he has his class, and it’s a nice pick me up.

His counselor wants him to join clubs, be an active, social student. He needs the life experience, she says. He wants to snark back that he gets plenty of experience literally just existing as himself, but that’s not gonna do him any favors.

Hunk and Pidge are both in Vex and band, Hunk does flags and Pidge plays the oboe, and they’re strangely protective of their instrument. They carry around a blacklight, so that at any given moment, they can see who’s touched it. They have their own fingerprints memorized, along with Lance’s, because he’s the one who touches it the most.

“Pidge, it’s not fair. How can you even tell they’re mine?”

“Because, your fingerprints are loops, and mine are arches, and they’re completely different. And stop touching my oboe!”

Lance does drama club, which is even more underfunded than their Vex club. It’s him and like three other people on a regular basis. Keith thinks he could maybe join drama, if he didn’t have to act. Lance keeps trying to push him into it, and he says he’ll think about it.

He complains to Shiro about having to join a club at all.

“What if I don’t want to be an active and social student? What if I just want to stay here and not deal with other people?”

“Keith, it’s good to get used to other people. And a club could be fun. You get to meet new people and have new experience.”

“Shiro I don’t want to do that. People are the worst.” Then he has an idea. “You should start a club, and then not tell anyone about it, and I’ll be your only member.”

“Keith that’s not how a club works.”

“I don’t want to join any clubs with lots of people. I already sometimes go to the VEX meetings, doesn’t that count?”

Shiro sighs, takes a drink of his tea, and then sits up. “How about,” he says, “I start a tea club.”

“… A tea club.”

“We drink a bunch of different kinds of tea for like an hour every Thursday and kids can do their homework or whatever they want to work on.”

“I get that you like tea, but—”

“Keith. How many people will want to join a club based around tea?”

“He thinks about it for a second. “None.”

Shiro scoffs. “Well hopefully not _none,_ but not a lot. Then you get to hang out with a small group of people and also tell your counsellor that you’re a part of a club.”

“Shiro that’s a great idea.”

He joins tea club, puts up a few posters for Shiro’s sake, and he’s right. There’s very few people, most of them in the same boat with their counsellors telling them that joining clubs is ‘good for them.’

Lance comes one day, wondering why exactly Keith doesn’t need a ride on Thursdays.

“So,” he asks, spinning his mug around. “You guys just sit around and drink tea?”

“Mhm,” Keith answers around a mouthful of tea. “Shiro started for people who didn’t want to join any clubs but their counsellors were forcing them to. It’s nice.”

“So you sit, drink tea, and talk to each other?”

“Mostly the first two. People don’t really talk so much as work on stuff and maybe sometimes ask for help. People stop in sometimes who just don’t want to go home yet, but other than that it’s only the people that are here right now. Except Roger. He’s not here today.”

He hears all about what Lance thinks of tea club the next day on the announcements.

“I’m just saying, why tea club? What does that even do for the school? I love Shiro as a teacher, but tea club? They just sit around, drink tea, and work on stuff. No one even talks to each other! We have drama club. Sad,” he coughs to cover up the underfunded that he says, “wonderful drama club, and people are joining tea club!”

Keith tries not to laugh about it too much, but Pidge just doesn’t care and laughs as much as they want during the announcements. His hatred for the club is unmeasurable, and it’s hilarious.

It’s not nearly as hilarious when he goes the next Thursday and there’s a bunch of new people. And they all want to talk and be chatty and be social and it’s the exact opposite of what all of the regulars there are used to.

He actually has leave about twenty minutes in after this girl keeps trying to get touchy with him and laughs at everything he says. It’s weird and awful and he doesn’t even say anything, just packs up his bag and leaves.

He calls Lance from outside the school and asks if he wants to hang out at all right now. He sounds surprised but says yes.

“So why no tea club today?”

“You talked about how much you hated it on the announcements and now there’s all these new people that want to actually talk and get close and touchy and it sucks.”

“Oh my god, are you pouting?”

He takes a second to appraise himself. He’s got his arms crossed, head on the window, one leg over the other, and his face feels very down. He sits upright immediately.

“No, I’m just upset.”

“You were definitely pouting, wow, oh man that’s fantastic.”

“Lance,” he says, exasperated. “It was good and now it’s not and this girl kept trying to touch me and it was—”

“Whoa wait what?”

“Yeah, she kept laughing at everything I said and trying to touch my shoulder and lean on me and stuff and it was weird. I wasn’t trying to be funny? And why’d she keep trying to touch me? And why are you laughing?”

Lance is doing his best not to, Keith can tell, but he’s failing pretty badly. He takes a breath that ends in a smile and looks at him.

“Do you know what flirting is?”

“Of course I know what flirting is, how does that have anything to do with what I just told you.”

Lance whispers and amused “oh my god” under his breath. “She was _flirting_ with you, man. How did you not get that?”

“What? No! No she wasn’t! She was being weird and touchy and I didn’t like it. People are supposed to like flirting, right? I’m not that oblivious.”

“You don’t have to like flirting to be flirted with, as is evidenced here. And I don’t know how it went right over your head, but it did. She likes you and thought the way to make you like her was to come to your stupid anti-social club and try to flirt with you. Obviously, she had the wrong idea.”

“Why was she even trying to flirt with me? I don’t like her? Why would she like me?”

“What do you mean why?”

“I just, I’m not used to this. I’m not that likeable of a person.”

“Well, you may be really dense to social cues like flirting, but you’re not an unlikeable person. We like you, don’t we? And she probably doesn’t actually care- wait no that’s just rude. She _maybe_ doesn’t care about your personality and just likes you for your looks.”

“My what,” he deadpans.

“I mean you’re not unattractive. Have you not noticed like half the people in our anatomy class keep trying to pair up with you?”

“I thought they just wanted to work on the projects?”

“No,” Lance says looking at him. “I mean, maybe some of them actually wanted to work on it with you because you actually get good grades in that class, but a lot of them just think you’re cute.”

“They think I’m cute.” Keith feels really confused and weird and why didn’t he notice this before? They’ve always been so nice to him?

“Well you have nice eyes and sometimes your hair actually looks good and you’re kind of short but not that short so it’s endearing to people and—”

He cuts himself off and focuses on the road, screwing up his face for a second before he seems to realize something. He looks back at him nervously.

“What?” Keith asks, completely unaware of what just happened. “Are you okay?”

“Yeah! I’m ultra fine, super great, fantastic!”

“Are you sure?”

“Yup!”

Keith gives him a look and Lance gives him an unconvincing smile, and he makes a note to bring it up later. Now he just huffs and looks out the window.

“So what you’re saying is that they’re not actually being friendly.”

“Not where I was going but if you’re gonna take it like that I guess. They’re being friendly in a ‘more than friendly’ way.”

“Fantastic.”

“You sound like you hate it.”

“I do.”

“You were just loving all the nice attention a few minutes ago.”

“That’s before- ugh, listen, people aren’t nice unless they want something. It’s just general human nature.”

“That’s a really bleak outlook on life.”

“But it’s true.” He’s not really sure why he’s telling Lance this, but it feels important. He can’t just let him live in the daydream that people are friendly for the sake of being friendly. It’s a one in a million chance of that happening, and apparently he’s been lucky his entire life. “People say nice things to you in class so they can leech off your work. They try to get close and compliment you to inflate their own ego. They try to date you so they can get attention for dating someone who’s ‘different,’ and not in the good way. They take you into their household to be praised and rewarded for taking in children that others would turn away. Almost no one does anything just for the sake of being nice, Lance. They act nice and friendly and great and you think maybe, just maybe, this time it’ll be different. Maybe this time they won’t turn it around on you, and the moment you let your guard down, they use you for whatever they wanted in the first place and go back to acting like you never mattered, like they never mattered to you at all. Like you didn’t trust them with everything and—”

He stops himself, already having said too much. Lance has stopped the car, looking at him with this awful, pity filled look, and Keith remembers why he doesn’t talk about this stuff with people. He scowls and looks at his hands.

“Don’t look at me like that.”

“I’m not,” Lance says softly. He looks up at him again, and it’s the same but different. It’s not really pity, just this sad look that doesn’t belong on his face. He put that there, and it’s his fault for whatever bad emotion he’s having right now.

“I’m sorry,” Keith says, and he means it. He doesn’t mean to say shitty things like that to people, it just happens. He needs to work on that. He need to work on a lot of things-

“I’m not using you. I hope you know that. I… I hope you don’t think I’m trying to make the list of people you just made, because I genuinely care about you and if I ever make you feel used or bad like that you need to tell me so I know not to do it again.”

“Lance I… I know you’re not using me.” He hopes. He wants to believe what he’s saying is true. “I’m being dramatic about _flirting_ for god’s sake. Just- just forget what I said.”

“Keith—”

“How’s college going for your sister?”

Lance sighs, turns his head down. “Anna’s fine. Her not being here is weird. I think she likes it more there, actually.”

He laughs a little and it sounds almost bitter. Keith hesitates for a moment before putting a hand on his shoulder.

The air feels heavy.

It’s almost five, and he knows he has to get home soon, but he doesn’t want to leave. Doesn’t want to ask Lance to take him there.

“I…” he starts and doesn’t finish. Lance looks at the clock and seems to understand.

“You need to go home.”

He nods and pulls his hand back. Lance restarts the car and hesitates for a second before driving. It’s quiet and uncomfortable. He stops a few blocks away, like always.

“You should call your sister,” Keith says as he grabs his bag and gets out of the car. “I’m sure she misses you too.”

\---

“Okay here’s the deal,” Lance says the next morning over announcements. “I say I hate a club once, and suddenly, a bunch of people flock to it? I’ve been talking about how much I want all of you to join drama for months! Do you all love what I hate? Is that it? Well then here we go. I hate drama club! What we do isn’t even that impressive. There’s only like three regular people and none of you should join it.”

There’s a pause and some shuffling on the intercom. Keith actually stops what he’s doing to listen, because Lance loves drama, and if he’s going to these lengths to get members, things must really be bad. He can hear a muffled ‘oh god’ and then Lance is back.

“I’m so sorry drama club, I didn’t mean that! I love you too much to insult you like this, this tactic won’t work. I’ll have to find a different way to get you members. Um, our lunch today is one quesadilla! No, you heard me correctly, one single quesadilla is what’s on the menu for lunch today, with a side of mushy carrots and milk. Gotta keep us kids from getting obese, and just cutting down our portions is how to do it. I hope you all brought something for lunch today, because I certainly did.”

Keith wonders exactly how Lance got his job doing announcements if he says stuff like this all the time. Teachers must get offended.

“And a reminder, as impossible as it sounds, sometimes people aren’t going to pick up on your flirting techniques. If someone seems uncomfortable with something you’re doing, maybe stop doing that thing. Don’t try to touch people you don’t know without their permission, and even if you do know them, it’s still better to ask. Don’t be offended if they don’t reciprocate your feelings. Sometimes, people expect the worst, even when you’re being nice, so don’t take it personally.”

“Jeez,” Pidge says. “I wonder who rejected him so harshly.”

“That’s not really fair,” Hunk says back. “He may try to flirt with anything that’s mildly attractive to him, but you know he does his best not to make people uncomfortable.”

Pidge hums, readjusting their glasses. “I guess you’re right. He’s not horrible with his flirting, he’s just bad at it.”

Keith is quiet. It’s about him, he knows that, and he wonders why Lance decided to give advice to the whole school on this. He’s grateful, but it’s a weird kind of feeling. Not like he owes him, because he knows Lance wouldn’t consider this important enough for that, or anything for that matter. It’s just… different.

“And that, children of high school, is the announcements for today. Be friendly to each other, blah blah. Turn in your homework, yada yada. This is Lance, telling you to have a great day, and signing off.”

\---

There’s this kid in tea club named Roger that always sits by Keith. He’s nice, doesn’t talk too much, and smells like cigarettes. It’s not a plus, just an observation.

He’s a grade above him, a senior, and sometimes offers to help with his homework. When he smiles, it seems genuine, and Keith doesn’t know how to feel about that.

“So you like a guy named Roger?” Pidge asks one day in VEX. They’re messing with the programming of the robot them and Hunk are working on.

“I never said I liked him, I just said he’s nice sometimes and I’m not sure what to do about it.”

“Same thing,” they say.

Lance is surprisingly quiet, arms crossed, leaning back in his chair. “I thought you didn’t trust people who were nice to you,” he says after a minute.

“You’re right,” Keith says, because he is. “But he seems like he genuinely wants to get to know me and I’m not sure if it’s a good thing or not.”

“Well,” Hunk chimes in, “Maybe it is a good thing. We actually wanted to get to know you, and look how that turned out.”

“Good is the answer you’re looking for,” Pidge tells him after Keith’s been quiet for a moment too long.

“No, I know, I’m not saying…” he groans into his hands.

“Maybe just try to get to know him first, and see where it goes?”

“I don’t like Roger.”

“No one said you did.”

“Pidge literally just said it a few minutes ago.”

“Lies and slander, that’s what you’re saying about me.”

“Don’t stress about it.” Lance sits his chair back down on four legs. “Not everyone’s out to get you, you know.”

He considers it.

\---

When he’s not completely distrusting, Roger’s company is actually kind of nice. He treats him like a real person, talks about what he likes and doesn’t, asks about his day. They exchange phone numbers and talk a lot more.

Lance doesn’t like him and it’s evident. “He’s just kinda, I don’t know, I’m getting bad vibes from him.”

“You get bad vibes from everyone,” Pidge tells him.

Lance snorts. “I think you’ve got me confused with Keith, he’s the one that thinks the world is out to get him.”

“Well so far I haven’t been wrong,” Keith says back.

Lance’s face falls a little, because Keith is right and he knows it. Keith gives him a small smile, lets him know he doesn’t take it personally.

Lance goes back to complaining. “I don’t know man, he hangs out with smoker’s corner kids. Do you really think he’s all that great?”

“I didn’t say he was great, I said he was nice. He wants to hang out next Saturday and I said yes.”

“Oooooooh, is it a date?” Hunk asks, leaning in a little closer.

“I—,” he hasn’t actually thought about that. He takes a second, thinks about it, about how he’s acted. “I think it might be.”

Lance’s mouth twitches before he falls into the dramatics, seemingly forgetting his hate for Roger. “Oh Hunk, look, our little boy’s growing up. His first date. How adorable!”

“It’s not my first date, idiot.”

“First date here, then. Right? It’s your first date at this school?”

“Yeah?”

“Then for all intents and purposes, to us, it’s your first date. Oh sweetie,” he leans on Hunk, places a hand over his heart. “He’s getting himself a boyfriend.”

“I said it’s a date not that we’re dating.”

“Details, details.”

“Tell us how it goes, at least,” Hunk says.

“Feel free to leave out really intimate details, because no one wants to hear about that,” Pidge adds on.

“Or don’t, either way,” Lance pipes from across the table.

“Ew.”

“What? If he needs to spill about the weird, juicy details of his date with the smoker kid, I’m just saying I’m available. Sometimes you just have to tell people that stuff.”

“Believe me,” Hunk says, pushing Lance off of him. “We know.”

“Okay, that was one time, we cannot base all of our Lance Experiences off of one time,” he says with a huff.

“Telling us what you want to do with a person is just as bad.”

“What do you—,” He cuts himself off and narrows his eyes. “Pidge, don’t”

“What? Who are you talking about,” Keith asks, confused.

“Oh just a guy,” they singsong back to him. “A really oblivious and dense guy, who wouldn’t understand it if it was put right in front of him on a silver platter.”

Lance’s face is red and Keith reaches out and pats his hand. “I hope it works out with him.”

Pidge and Hunk are trying not to laugh, and he really doesn’t understand why, and Lance is staring at him like he just fell from the sky, and he wonders if he said the wrong thing. Then Lance clears his throat and gives him a wobbly smile.

“Thanks buddy.”

Keith smiles back.

\---

Him and Roger end up dating, which surprises absolutely no one. Keith likes the attention. It’s nice and always good. He tries his best to give it back to Roger, and it feels good, feels like this could be normal.

He moves very fast, Roger does, kisses him on the first date, which Pidge makes a face about being told.

When it comes to sex stuff, it’s weird. Roger doesn’t know he’s trans, doesn’t know how comfortable he is with whatever they’re doing. Keith hasn’t said anything yet, trying to test the waters first.

He does stuff to Roger, and it’s not bad, just weird. He doesn’t have experience with this part of relationships, isn’t sure where they’re supposed to be with this.

Lance keeps his promise and listens to him talk about it whenever.

“Do you think we’re moving too fast? I’m not used to this just constant affection and touchiness. It’s…” he makes a face, leans back on Lance’s bed.

“Well I think he wants to move faster than you do. You should talk about it, tell him what you’re comfortable with.”

“I don’t _know_ what I’m comfortable with. I’ve never been in anything like this, that’s why I’m asking you.”

Lance is quiet for a second, and then his face splits into a grin. He swings an arm over Keith’s shoulder. “It’s like I’m the love guru.”

“You’re not the love guru,” he says, shoving him off. “You’re the ‘I’ve got more experience’ guru.”

“Same thing.” Lance flops onto his back. “I think you should talk with him. Communication is key in any relationship.”

“You sound like a magazine aimed at middle schoolers.”

“It’s true! Even with friendships you have to talk to each other. Romantic stuff is where it gets trickier. You have to tell people what you want, what you need. You have to learn to let your guard down more, stop pretending so much. Let them see you for you. If it’s right, they won’t judge you, and you won’t judge them.”

Lance is staring at the floor with this look on his face and Keith’s stomach flips.

That’s… new.

“So,” he says, clearing his throat after a second. He’ll deal with that later. “I’m just supposed to talk about it? With him? That’s so weird. ‘Hey I like touching you but don’t try to take my shirt off because it makes me feel sick.’ Yeah, that’s a great way to do that.”

“Blunt, but not bad. You’ve got the right idea though. Just say what you’re okay with. Obviously you don’t want to receive anything, at least not yet, if ever. So just say that. You realize that’s okay, right?”

“Yes Lance, I know it’s okay to say no.”

Lance sits up straight, pretends to fix his nonexistent tie. “Abstinence is the only sure fire way to not get pregnant or contract STD’s. Every other way, no matter how small the risk, can fail and leave you with mistakes that will affect your life forever.”

Keith shoves a pillow in his face. “I heard enough of that in middle school, I don’t need it from you.”

He scoffs. “I’m not the one asking for sex advice here, am I?”

“Yeah well you—,” he fishes for something good to come back with and ands up with frustrated grumbling. Lance grins.

“Score one for Lance!”

He shoves the pillow back in his face. “Shut up.”

He doesn’t.

\---

About a month and a half in, he finally tells him. He sends it in a text message, waits with held breath and near numb fingertips.

Roger tells him that it doesn’t change anything, that he’s still the same Keith he started dating, so why would it?

He’s wrong.

Everyone notices, Keith certainly does. He looks at him differently now, like he’s searching for something that’s not there. He doesn’t touch him as much, and when he kisses him, it’s short.

Roger calls him one night, after Keith had been debating whether to ask if something was wrong or not.

“Yeah?”

“Listen,” is how Roger starts, and Keith can feel his jaw stiffen. “I… don’t like girls.”

“Right, and neither do I. I thought we talked about this?”

“We did, but… well, you’re not—”

“A girl. I’m not a girl. We talked about that too, so what are you saying?”

“It’s not that you’re not a guy, but you’re not, not, not what I’m looking for in a guy.”

“You prefer your boys with dicks and no tits, right?”

“That’s a crude way to put it, but—”

“So basically what you’re saying is that you’re breaking up with me because you’re an asshole.”

“Hey! No, that’s not what I’m saying. I’m trying to be nice about this and break up with you because of our differences—”

“Our _differences_? You’re trying to be nice? You’re calling me a girl and saying that you can’t like girls when I’m not even one! You were just fine with dating me before you found out I have a fucking vagina, so what you’re saying is that you only see guys as guys if they’ve got a dick and no boobs. Be honest with what you’re breaking up with me for, I already know.”

“You’re taking this way out of proportion, I was trying to make this better for you.”

“Yeah, you’re really doing a great job of that by misgendering me because your ass can’t handle a guy without a penis. Nice. This feels way better than what it could have been.”

He’s livid, pacing his room. He hangs up on him yelling about how much of a dick he’s being about this, which is fucking ironic.

Keith sits on the bed for a second, breathes in and out. He tries to focus on staying calm, and when that fails, he calls Lance.

“Howdy ho my bro!”

“Lance what the hell,” he tries to keep the hurt out of his voice.

“Are you alright?” Apparently, he fails.

“Yeah I- I’m fine. I’m…” he’s angry is what he is. This is what he expected, but it still hurts.

“Do you want me to pick you up?”

He sighs. “Yes.”

“I’ll be there in like ten minutes.”

Keith climbs out his window and walks down to the tree where Lance usually picks him up from. He leans on the trunk, eyes closed. He’s not sure how much time passes, but he hears a car pull up and opens his eyes. Lance is getting out of his car and walking up. He crosses his arms.

“What happened?”

“We broke up.”

Lance leans next to him on the tree. “How are you feeling about that?”

“Fucking pissed.”

He looks at Keith with wide eyes. “What?”

“He said he was breaking up with me because he doesn’t like girls.”

Keith watches as Lance’s face gets dark. “He what.”

“I expected it but…” he groans into his hands. “I don’t even know if I even liked him all that much.  I just liked the attention. It was nice. It felt good. I felt good, but I shouldn’t…”

“You shouldn’t expect that. He’s a dick. Don’t think this is your fault.”

He doesn’t, mostly. There’s that little nagging piece inside of him that feels like if he was normal he wouldn’t have to deal with this.

Lance pulls him out of his own head by wrapping an arm around his shoulder and pulling him in closer. It’s warm and good and familiar. He rests his head on Lance’s shoulder and lets out a wobbly little “fuck.”

“Yeah,” Lance agrees, and they stay like that for a while, until Lance has to go home.

\---

“A reminder to the people in our school that if someone tells you their gender and what they’d like to be called, respect it. I don’t care what your opinions are on it, don’t make that person feel like trash just because you couldn’t take the time out of your day to remember their pronouns. Also! If you think that people who are transgender aren’t ‘really’ the gender they say they are, you can go f—”

There’s some muffled yelling and the intercom gives feedback a couple of times before Lance gets it back. Pidge and Keith share a look.

“Sorry, sorry, I got carried away there. No big deal. But the point stands. Don’t be jerks. Love each other, all that good stuff.”

“Did something happen last night?” Pidge asks as Lance dives into what the lunch for today is.

“Yeah, uh, Roger broke up with me because he doesn’t like girls and I’m technically not really a guy.”

Pidge makes a face. “Wow. What a dick.”

“Right? I called Lance and he got more upset than I did, I think.”

“Typical.”

“What?”

Pidge turns towards him fully. “Lance gets really protective over the people he cares about. And you’re a person he definitely cares about.”

His stomach does that little flippy thing again. He knows that Lance cares about him, but hearing it from someone else is nice. Pidge looks entirely too gleeful.

“Are you blushing?”

Keith feels his face, it’s warm. “What? No you- fuck, shut up,” he stumbles out.

“You are!” They’ve got a look on their face that means trouble. “oh,” they’re affecting his voice now. “Everyone’s out to get me so I won’t let anyone in but the second I hear Lance cares about me, well, that rule’s out the windo- mmph!”

Keith covers their mouth with his hand, ineffectively shutting them up. Pidge licks his palm and he pulls his hand back, disgusted.

“Don’t,” he says as they look at him expectedly. “Don’t say anything I don’t even, I’m not even sure what I… fuck.”

Their face softens. “Well, you did just get broken up with. It’s okay to feel confused.”

“Don’t mock me.”

“Okay, okay, you got me there. But you should think about it. Sort your feelings out. Figure out if you like him.”

Keith stares at them. “Why are you better at this than me? You’re fourteen.”

“Because I’ve been around Lance longer than you have.”

He turns back to his forgotten work and stares at it. Pidge elbows him and waggles their eyebrows.

He thinks.

\---

Lance is very touchy, is what Keith realizes. It’s nice, really nice, and he doesn’t want it to stop, but at the same time it’s not helping the Situation.

The Situation, as he refers to it, is that he’s realized he likes Lance and can’t act on it at all, because Lance likes someone else.

He still won’t tell him who it is, but he talks about him on the intercoms sometimes. He’s named him Mystery Boy, to keep the mystery.

It’s stupid and sometimes Keith likes to pretend that Lance is talking about him on the intercoms with that stupid, lovesick voice that he doesn’t even realize he’s using.

“I think he doesn’t realize that he deserves so much more than he gets,” Lance says one morning. “He deserves to be loved and have a nice household and not have to worry every day.”

Keith’s heart is in his throat and he makes frustrated gestures at the intercom to Pidge. They’re just laughing.

“He picked me up the other day and it was like am magical life experience. One for the books.”

It’s so easy to put himself in Mystery Boy’s shoes because Keith did that the other day. Picked him up and carried him to the opposite corner of the room because he wouldn’t shut up. Lance was shocked into silence, and Keith wishes that’s what he was talking about.

“Oh my god you’re so fucking oblivious.”

He ignores Pidge in favor of listening to Lance’s half distracted ramblings on the announcements

“Today’s lunch is… hmm let’s see, Pizza! I wonder if that’s his favorite food, he always seems to want to get it.”

“I like getting pizza,” Keith mumbles and Pidge starts laughing again. He glares at them.

“Don’t laugh at my suffering,” he halfheartedly jokes.

“Your suffering?” They’re on the verge of crying with how much they’re laughing. “Just talk to him!”

“Pidge I can’t do that! He likes who ever Mystery Boy is, not me. Obviously. How can you even suggest I ruin our friendship like that?”

“It wouldn’t _ruin_ your friendship, it would just… evolve it into something new. With more honesty and trust.” They sound like they’re not even trying to cover up their sarcasm.

“No.”

“You’re no fun.”

At lunch, Lance practically lays on him. He tries to eat his lunch like everything’s normal, because it actually is normal, but it’s difficult. Pidge keeps making eyes at the two of them, whispers something to Hunk, and suddenly it’s both of them making eyes.

Keith hates his life.

“Hey fag,” some kid taunts as he passes their table. “Your mystery boyfriend dropped you for being a fucking homo yet?”

Lance sets his jaw and continues eating. Keith’s blood is boiling and he stands, trying to get to the guy, before Lance grabs his wrist.

“Don’t,” he says, and he looks a little surprised. The entire table does actually. “It’s not worth it, don’t.”

He takes a breath, looks at the kid that’s already halfway across the room, and sits back down. It’s quiet for a minute.

Lance breaks the silence, practically throwing himself on Keith. “You were gonna fight for me, that’s so sweet.”

Keith is stunned by the action, before he starts laughing. It breaks whatever ice had settled over the table.

“Yeah,” he admits. “I was.”

“Don’t get suspended for stupid names, idiot.”

“No promises.”

\---

When he’s completely overwhelmed by the yelling and the pounding on his door, he slips out the window, running down the street. He’s shaky and scared and angry all at once and lets his feet guide him where they want.

He doesn’t realize he’s walked to Lance’s until he’s there. The light in his room is on, sky going dark. It’s almost eight, he realizes as he pulls out his phone and calls him.

“Nyello?”

“Would now be an alright time to come over?”

“Um, I’m working on our English assignment right now, but I guess?”

“Great,” he breathes out. “Don’t freak out.”

“Why would I—?” Keith knocks on his window and sees Lance jump up. They lock eyes and Lance opens the window. He ends the call.

“Why are you knocking on my window and not on the front door like a normal person?”

“Uh,” the truth is, he forgot the front door existed.

“Also, why are you already at my house? You literally just called me.”

“I didn’t realize I was walking here until I got here.”

“You walked here?” He steps out of the way as Keith pulls himself through the window.

“Yeah I…” he doesn’t finish, dropping onto Lance’s bed. There’s constant noise at this house, but it’s nice, good background noise that doesn’t have him panicking.

“Are you okay?”

“Yeah,” he says, rolling over to face him. “They were trying to get in my room and yelling really loudly and I didn’t think, I just left.”

Lance sits on the floor next to the bed. He’s quiet.

“Do you want any help on English?” Keith asks. “I did it the other day.”

“Yeah,” Lance says, and it’s quiet. Keith pushes himself up.

“You alright?”

“You’re asking me if I’m alright.” He laughs, but it’s not funny. “You just left home because you were scared for yourself, and you’re asking me if I’m alright.”

“It wasn’t actually that bad, I could’ve—”

“Don’t say that! It’s all bad and you act like it’s fine and then when I’m upset about something small you act like the entire world has conspired against me. It hasn’t. You’re so important, why can’t you see that?”

“I…” he’s frozen in place. This is new, and not in a good way.

Lance’s face falls. “I’m sorry, this is, I’m just upset and you’re here, I’m sorry.”

“Don’t be, I vent a lot, you should too. What’s wrong?”

“Anna’s not coming back for break.”

That’s not at all what he expected. Lance had talked with his sister months ago about them both missing each other and it had gone really well.

“What? Why?”

“She’s got this job, and I know most of her friends are staying, but I just, I don’t know. She came back for the last break, and I think she thinks that’s enough? And it should be, but… even mom isn’t this upset and I feel stupid for wishing she would come back, but I…”

“Hey, no, you’re allowed to have feelings that aren’t just happy. I know you think that. She’s your sister, and obviously the two of you are close. It’s okay to be upset about this.”

“I know, but, I want to be happy for her, because she’s in college and she’s making friends and has a good job, but it’s selfish and stupid to want her back when she’s doing so much better there than she ever did here.”

“It’s not selfish. It’s okay to miss people.”

Lance sighs, and it sounds sad and out of place. Keith wants to hold him until he feels better, but this is not the time, not the place.

“You’re better at this than you think you are, you know that?”

“Better at what?”

“Feelings stuff like this. You’re better at comforting than you think.”

His heart swells a little at that. “Thanks,” he says gently.

“Anytime,” he sniffs, rubs at his face. “Alright, let’s kill this English.”

\---

“I worry sometimes,” Lance says on the announcements. Keith is doodling absentmindedly on his paper. “That if I tell him I like him, he’ll think our entire friendship up until then will be me having used him to get to date him.”

Well that sounds exactly like Keith.

Wait.

“I know he worries about that, about the people close to him using him for whatever they want and then leaving him again.”

Pidge is looking at him and Keith’s blood runs cold. There’s no possible way.

“And I know his thoughts aren’t completely without fact. People are jerks, and he’s gotten the short end of the stick too many times for me to count. I actually don’t know all of it. But I feel like he wouldn’t think I was being genuine, that I don’t actually care about him and that I’m just using him for what I want.”

He’s fishing for words. Pidge’s smile is getting bigger. They’ve known the entire time.

He thinks back on all the things Lance said about Mystery Boy and wondered how it never clicked.

“But I do! I care about him a lot, and I think he knows that, just doesn’t actually believe it sometimes.”

“Pidge,” Keith says, his voice gravelly. “Why didn’t you tell me.”

“Because it was really fun watching the two of you dance around it. You’re really oblivious to stuff when it’s right in front of you. I’m surprised this is what ticked you off.”

“I…” he doesn’t know what to do now. Lunch is going to be so awkward.

“Do you want Hunk and me to move to a different table today so you can talk about your feeeelings?”

“No, please don’t.”

“Oh? I thought you’d love that idea.”

“I’m gonna, I’ll, I’ll ask for a ride home today.”

Pidge claps their hands together. “Perfect! Just don’t act too weird at lunch.”

Lance gives him a ride home, and it’s quiet. Keith is trying to figure out his words.

“You okay? You’ve been acting weird since lunch.”

“I—,” he’s choking on his words. “I like you a lot and if that’s weird that’s okay and if you don’t want to be friends with me that’s okay too, but I think you like me because sometimes it sounds like Mystery Boy is me actually most of the times it does and today you said that thing about using people and I just thought maybe that you liked me so that’s that and yeah.”

Lance is staring at him with wide eyes and a red face. Keith realizes how much he just said and feels himself flush. “Uh.”

“That was…” Lance says. Keith is ready for rejection, even if he knows reasonably that it shouldn’t happen. “That was a lot just then.”

“Yeah,” Keith manages.

“You… you like me?” He manages to sound like a grade schooler, voice nervous and high pitched.

“Yeah…” he repeats.

Lance stops the car. He stares at the wheel and Keith is getting tenser and tenser by the second. Then he turns to him.

“You like me,” and it’s deadly serious.

“Yeah, and you’re doing a lot to stop my nerves here.” Keith laughs anxiously.

Lance makes an o with his mouth and then smiles. It’s big and toothy and looks right on his face. “You like me!”

Keith doesn’t know what to do at this point. He’s twisting his fingers together and can’t take his eyes off of Lance’s. “Do you… uhm, should I…”

“And I like you too!”

A sense of relief washes over him, even if he already knew. He smiles tentatively and Lance’s gets even bigger.

“Can I…” Keith starts, and then stops. He’s staring at Lance’s mouth, trying to get his message across.

“You want to kiss me,” Lance says, self assured.

“Yes.”

“Well,” Lance leans in close, and Keith swallows hard. “What if I do it first?”

“That would be fine,” he says breathlessly.

He does, and it’s soft and sweet and doesn’t last that long, but it’s fine, because Keith is feeling entirely too many emotions right now.

“You okay?” Lance asks.

“Very.”

Lance settles back into his own face, small smile gracing his lips. “Me too.”

\---

“Ugh,” Pidge groans, hiding their face in their arms. “Hunk, why did we think it would be a god idea if these two got together?”

“Um, because you’re loving and supporting friends? And not fiendish devils that keep useful information like ‘the guy you like likes you back’ from us.”

“Did we do that Pidge? I don’t remember doing that at all.”

“Neither do I. I don’t think it happened.”

“You told me when I figured it out that you didn’t tell me because it was fun watching us dance around it.”

“Lies, lies and slander.”

Lance groans dramatically and throws himself onto Keith. “We don’t need them, babe. We’ve got each other.”

Keith stares at him. “Babe?” he asks incredulously.

“Um yes? We’re dating. That means I get to call you stupid cutesy nicknames like babe and sugar baby honey snuffums.”

“Eugh,” Pidge says from across the table, and Keith can’t help but agree.

“Okay, I’ll just save the nicknames for when we’re alone,” he makes eyebrows and Pidge make an even more disgusted noise.

Keith leans down and kisses his forehead. “Or we could do away with nicknames completely.”

“Mmmm no, I think nicknames are gonna be a staple item of our relationship. The absolute ickiest, most tooth rotting nicknames imaginable.”

“Fantastic,” Hunk dead pans, and Lance smiles.

Keith thinks he can live with this.

**Author's Note:**

> oh my god my goal for this was 8000 words and i made it im so happy oh my god i love this series fucc me up  
> Also im worried abt word count??? Bc Word say 9024 and this sayd under 9000 so im like just a lil worried abt that if it seems like theres words missing let me know


End file.
